This “2000 overstaffed” is brought to us by the same group that in 2015 was saying upgrade time for newbies will be 16+ years and the time to hold ATL being about 10 years.

When you have new hires regularly being able to get premium 3 day trips in DOT and use the overlap to lose their first trips of the month in order to reduce the TFP threshold to qualify for second year rate, I wouldn’t call that being “staffed correctly.” In fact, it’s rather comical to go back and read some of the posts from 2015-2016 timeframe and daily complaints about getting JA’d and then watch the same people now griping about being “overstaffed by 2000” especially when that’s almost how many people were hired between then and now. Kinda hard to take people throwing these numbers seriously...

We are indeed overstaffed. Hands down. By 2000? Not even close.

I agree but have you ever known this company to spend a dollar it didn’t need to? (And I mean that
In a positive sense) Somethings up

various replies here are why I am frustrated with the reported staffing and hiring outlook.

Also, aren't like 200 MAX'es "on order". ???

If 10 FO's per plane is normal staffing, then will SWA not need 1,500+ new hires in total to accomodate 200 airplanes ?

There are 9900 pilots on the list. Without the max there are around 720 planes. There were supposed to be 70 max by the end of the year. There will also be older NG’s pulled from service as the max returns.

Anyone know if the pilot recruiting team will be at the job fair event in Houston next week? Red, White and You, Military job fair. Just seeing if it is worth the trip?
Thanks.

Don’t sweat the rumor mongers.

Get to a job fair or an interview and enjoy the ride.

We are about a half Pilot/airframe overstaffed with the max gone. Once they slowly work their way back in the system and next summer rolls around with the shoulder flights we will be appropriately staffed to have a good mix of premium and minimizing JA’s. Just my opinion. Our goal is to have 800 airframes by end of 2020. It should have been about 20 higher, but the growth plans were stunted obviously this year. We have 250 ish firm max orders the next 5 years with 50 destinations on the radar to increase or introduce coverage. As long as the economy doesn’t tank we have some more hiring to do. They may be front loading because recruiting is scared of a “shortage” in year 4 and 5 of the next 5. The turnover at the big 3 are going to gobble up a lot of our regional hires and destination 225 isn’t going to cut it.

Just my 2 cents

They keep adding more routes, up to 29 daily flights from Cali to Hawaii ...including newly announced San Diego directs. So there’s growth, with the max coming back (some day?) we will need people, we will need even more people if they add a new type 🤷🏻

Hey all, just curious to know if anyone knows if pilot recruiting will be in attendance at the event Thursday in Houston? Making sure it's worth it to pull the trigger on buying a ticket into Houston for the day. Thanks for any insight.

I'm waiting patiently by the phone....